product manager career
Bagging product manager jobs in a big company is a dream career for many fresh graduates. However, a product manager career doesn't always begin with an associate product manager role in a big tech company. As a matter of fact, there are several approaches you could take to land that dream job. This is not meant to discourage you from applying for the highly competitive associate product manager role, but chances are that the company is looking for someone with more experience in the field.
The best approach for fresh graduates in this case is to apply for the product manager role in a midsize startup. Since most startups have limited resources, you will likely be handling more than one department, such as analytics, marketing, operations, customer interviews and so on. Playing the jack of all trades in a small or midsize startup would make up for your limited work experience when you move higher up the ladder.
In case you are looking for a larger company or the experience that comes with working in one, you should not only look for product manager jobs, but also the different kinds of functions according to your skill set particularly. There are various roles which allow you to work closely with the products. For example, product operations allow you to run analysis in order to suggest how customers and users experience that particular product and provide impactful insights. Other examples include product vision, strategy and sales roles, which can be useful for transitioning to a product management career within a year or two. The only condition is that you truly understand the customer pain points and how they're using the system. Sales roles are also useful as you can put your knowledge to test while doing interviews to understand in what ways did the product resonate with the users and which aspects need work.
Experts suggest that the chances of candidates are slim when they stick to applying for product management roles. On the other hand, broadening one's horizons with versatile roles offers you multiple roads to reach your dream product manager career.
The best approach for fresh graduates in this case is to apply for the product manager role in a midsize startup. Since most startups have limited resources, you will likely be handling more than one department, such as analytics, marketing, operations, customer interviews and so on. Playing the jack of all trades in a small or midsize startup would make up for your limited work experience when you move higher up the ladder.
In case you are looking for a larger company or the experience that comes with working in one, you should not only look for product manager jobs, but also the different kinds of functions according to your skill set particularly. There are various roles which allow you to work closely with the products. For example, product operations allow you to run analysis in order to suggest how customers and users experience that particular product and provide impactful insights. Other examples include product vision, strategy and sales roles, which can be useful for transitioning to a product management career within a year or two. The only condition is that you truly understand the customer pain points and how they're using the system. Sales roles are also useful as you can put your knowledge to test while doing interviews to understand in what ways did the product resonate with the users and which aspects need work.
Experts suggest that the chances of candidates are slim when they stick to applying for product management roles. On the other hand, broadening one's horizons with versatile roles offers you multiple roads to reach your dream product manager career.